Black Swan Graphene Inc. announced that the latest version of its GraphCore™001 graphene nanoplatelet material ("Graphcore") enhances the composite abrasion resistance by a range of 60% to 80%, when used as an additive in Thermoplastic Polyurethane ("TPU"). The company had previously communicated an already enviable enhancement performance of 45% in TPU with a 1% loading ratio (amount of additive material added to a composite material, relative to the amount of matrix material). TPU is a thermoplastic elastomer combining some properties of both plastic and rubber.

It is tough, flexible, durable, and resistant to abrasion as well as to oils and lubricants. This unique combination of properties makes TPU ideally suitable for various applications including in automotive, sports equipment, textile coatings, and mobile handsets. The manufacture of the composites, being the Graphcore-enhanced TPU, and the subsequent testing, were carried out independently at the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre ("GEIC") located at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom.

The precise type of TPU selected for the trials is currently used in mobile equipment and extruded sheets, which are generally used in many industries from packaging to transportation and construction materials. The composites were manufactured via a masterbatch and then moulded to carry out the tests, which were based on loading ratios of 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%. The abrasion tests correspond to norm ISO 5470 - 1:2016 - Taber abrasion.

Three thousand (3,000) cycles were carried out using standard abrasive wheels1 with 1,000 grams of weight per wheel. The weight loss was recorded after each 1,000 cycles. Between each 1,000 cycles, the wheels were abraded with the standard sandpaper to 50 cycles; sandpaper was changed for the start of each new test.